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New Zealand Mail, Issue 387, 12 July 1879, Page 6

In a sermon at Baltimore recently on the Lord's Prayer, Mr. Moody touched incidentally upon the hard times. "We hear," he said, " a great deal of talk about hard times ; but what has caused them ? Sin. Book at the money that is spent in this great country for whisky alone. We don't say to God ' Give us this clay our daily whisky,' do we ? I tell you there are mints of money spent for whisky that ought to feed children's mouths with bread. The fact of the case is, this nation has been too prosperous. The Jews, the chosen people of God, never could stand prosperity. As soon as they got rich they went to worshipping idols, and whenever they got fat they began to kick against God. I fear American morals suffer in proportion as the nation prospers." The 'ailing with persons who say the Lord's Prayer is, Mr. Moody thinks, that they do not really mean what they say. "If the Lord's Prayer was meant earnestly and made the rule of life, we would have none of those great standing armies that are kept menacing one another in the Old World yonder." How can a man say " Abba Father," if he is not a child of God ? and how can the unregenerated man say " Hallowed be Thy name?" " Keverence thyself " is the motto of the world. The natural man works from himself as a centre. All acts, all enterprises, all energies, and all ambitiens "have in view the great I am." Mr. Mcody does not know but saying the Lord's Prayers without feeling and meaning it " is as bad as swearing itself."

Some of the residents of Napier presented a petition to the Mayor, asking that a poll of the ratepayers might be taken on the question of forming the Athenaeum into a Public Libraiy, under the provisions of the Act of 1869. The Mayor brought the matter before the Council, when it was resolved, on the motion of Councillor Cornford, to refer the petition back for further consideration to those signing it, for which the Mayor and Council have been severely taken to task by the Daily Telegraph.